


Think About It

by elisebanana



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Auror Harry Potter, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Magical Buildings, Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter), Ministry of Magic Employee Draco Malfoy, Not Epilogue Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-16 00:15:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19306753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elisebanana/pseuds/elisebanana
Summary: Draco Malfoy works for the Department of Magical Maintenance, responsible for keeping the Ministry running smoothly. When things keep breaking in Harry Potter's office, it could be the beginning of an unexpected friendship - or maybe something more?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfic I've ever written, so if you read it, I would hugely appreciate you letting me know!

Draco had been having a perfectly normal Tuesday before Harry Potter walked into the Department of Magical Maintenance at the Ministry of Magic. It was mid-November, and the air had been pleasantly crisp on his way into work that morning. Draco was absorbed in fixing a handle from one of the lifts, when Potter burst through the door and started talking before he even made it to the front desk.

"Hi, so the weather's been off at my office for months, and last Monday the lights went out, so I've been working by Lumos all week, and now today the heat's gone, and I'm absolutely freezing to death, so I really think this should be a little bit higher than 'Lowest Priority' now…" Potter trailed off, seeming to finally notice who it was standing behind the help desk.

Draco, having resolved to be perfectly professional, suppressed a snort. 

"Hello, Potter. I didn't quite catch all that - your weather, lights, and heat all went out?"

"Yeah," said Potter, "The windows have been solid black for about two months now, which is annoying but not the worst, but last week the overhead lights went out, and today the heat's gone too, so now my office is just a cold, dark box. A little unpleasant to work in."

Draco nodded, noting the details in his logbook. "And did you submit maintenance requests for all this?"

"Of course I did Malfoy, I know everything in the Ministry is done by forms, but they were all returned with a big stamp saying 'Lowest Priority', so I came down to see if I could talk whoever was here into bumping the priority up a little - no idea you worked here, by the way. How did that happen?" 

"Oh, yes, I've been here a while," Draco replied vaguely, already thinking about what spells he would need to fix Potter's problems and whether he should bring any tools with him. "Lowest Priority, you said? That doesn't sound right, but our request triaging is automated now, so perhaps there's a bug in the spell. Let me just grab a couple things and then we'll go see if we can get this sorted."

Potter watched interestedly as Draco rummaged around the workbench. Draco tried to avoid eye contact and focus on the tools. The magical weather and the lights would only require his wand, but the heating system was a little finicky and he would likely need a wrench or two. He absolutely definitely was not thinking about how surprised Potter was to find him working at the Ministry. So far, he was doing excellently at maintaining professionalism, if he did say so himself, and he wasn't about to ruin that by letting himself get worked up about Potter still being suspicious of him after all these years.

After setting the out of office sign on the front desk, Draco gestured at Potter to lead the way, and followed him out of the bowels of the Ministry and up towards the Auror Division offices. They walked in an uncomfortable silence. Or at least, Draco felt uncomfortable, Potter seemed unbothered, his Auror robes swirling behind him in that dramatic way that Draco suspected was charmed into the uniforms themselves. It was rather a long time to walk side by side with someone without speaking, but then again, what on earth do you say to someone who you haven't spoken to in years and with whom you never got along even when you did speak?

Apparently Potter  _ was _ feeling uncomfortable too, because he cleared his throat and asked, "Did you catch the game this weekend?"

"The Quidditch finals?" Draco asked. "No, I was away on the weekend."

"Oh, er, me too," Potter answered, "I mean, I wasn't away, but I didn't watch the game either."

Draco had to laugh at this feeble attempt at conversation, but he didn't want Potter to take it the wrong way, so he offered up a different topic of conversation.

"I was at a wedding this weekend, actually. You remember Terry Boot, right? He married a second cousin of mine in France. She went to Beauxbatons."

"Oh, did she come to Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament?" Potter asked.

"No," Draco replied, "she's almost a decade older than us, so you wouldn't know her. I'm not sure how she and Terry met, but I suppose they felt like they had to invite me seeing as I'm one of the only relatives of hers who he actually knows!"  _ …and who isn't in Azkaban _ , Draco thought, but that seemed like something Potter might not take as a joke, so he kept it to himself.

Potter gave him a polite chuckle. "It's been a while since I went to a winter wedding. Where did they have it?"

_ Look at us! Me and Potter! Having a polite conversation! _ Draco thought, a little wildly. It was odd talking to Potter like they were strangers, but it was definitely more pleasant than any other conversation they'd ever had. Draco was suddenly very glad he had paid attention to Simone and Terry's wedding, since it meant he was able to entertain Potter with details about the venue and stories about tipsy  guests until they reached Potter's office.

Potter's office was tucked around a weird corner at the end of a hallway, separate from the big open room where the other Aurors' cubicles were.

"Why do you even have your own office, anyway?" Draco asked as Potter opened the door. Potter had done the full three years of Auror training, which meant he had only become a full-fledged Auror a year and a half ago. "Were you promoted already?" 

"Er, no, not really," Potter said, tugging at his hair like the question made him uncomfortable.

"Ah, I see," Draco said, "having Saint Potter around was too  _ overwhelming _ for the other Aurors' delicate constitutions, and you've been banished to a supply cupboard to allow them to recover." He regretted the words while he was still saying them, but couldn't stop himself. So much for professionalism.

Potter raised his eyebrows, but to Draco's surprise he burst out laughing.

You know what Malfoy? I think it used to be an evidence locker for cold cases, but otherwise you're pretty much spot on. Here, come on in, get a good look at how dark and cold it is in here.  _ Lumos. _ "

Draco followed Potter's wand light into the office. Other than the darkness, it looked pretty much any other Ministry office, but Draco could tell that it had recently been renovated and expanded. The spellwork still felt fresh. He started with the lights, which were an easy fix. Potter could probably have fixed it for himself if he knew where to look, but most of the Ministry was lit with a gentle ambient glow that came from nowhere in particular. In addition to providing even lighting, the lack of an obvious light source was meant to encourage Ministry employees to call Magical Maintenance instead of messing with the lighting charms themselves – even though the lights were simple, there were so many other complicated spells layered throughout the Ministry that it was best to discourage any meddling.

All of which is to say that Draco squinted at Potter's ceiling for a second, found the right spot, tapped it sharply with his wand, and then suddenly they weren't in darkness any more. It was still uncomfortably cold though, and Draco felt a little envious as he saw Potter grab a scarf off the back of his chair.

"Well that was fast," Potter said, winding the scarf around his neck and settling in at his desk. "Wish I'd gone down to find you sooner rather than working by  _ Lumos _ all last week. Is it okay if I catch up on paperwork while you fix the heat? It won't be loud or anything?"

Draco made a  _ go ahead _ gesture with his hands, and said, "It'll take me a little longer, but it shouldn't be particularly loud. Just a couple spells now and then."

Potter nodded and grabbed a stack of parchment. Draco took this as his cue to get to work on the heating.

The first step was casting the modified  _ Specialis Revelio _ that allowed him to see the complex network of charms, spells, wires, and pipes that allowed the Ministry to function. Unlike the lighting, which was essentially conjured from nothing like a  _ Lumos _ , the heating in the Ministry was done with actual hot water in pipes – it was based on an old fashioned Muggle system, but magically augmented. The heating pipes  _ should _ have showed up as glowing green lines in the walls – or possibly the floors, depending on who had done the installation – but they were nowhere to be seen.

"What is it?" Potter asked, hearing Draco's  _ hmm  _ of surprise.

"It seems to be the case that your heating system is  _ missing _ , Potter, not broken," Draco said. "You're sure this room used to be warm?"

"Yes, Malfoy, I'm sure," Potter said, a touch defensively. "It definitely used to be warm in here."

" _ Hmmm _ ," said Draco, again. "Very odd that your pipes should go missing, they do generally stay put once installed." He leaned back on his feet, already calculating what he would need to fetch from the downstairs to put in new pipes.

"Are you accusing me of vanishing my own heating pipes? Why on earth would I do something like that?" Potter asked.

"What? No," said Draco, turning to face Potter instead of continuing to stare at his wall. "Not at all, just thinking aloud. I'm going to have to run back down to the workroom, I'm afraid. I only brought what I would need to fix existing pipes, but it seems that I'll have to reinstall the whole thing. I'll be back in a jiffy."

It  _ was _ rather odd that the heating pipes in Potter's office had apparently just disappeared. Draco had never seen that in the four years he'd been working for Magical Maintenance, but then again, one of the things he liked about the job was that almost every repair was novel in some way or another. Even when the same things broke, they almost never broke in the exact same way, which meant that Draco never had to solve the exact same problem twice. It kept things interesting.

Armed with some piping and a magical soldering iron, Draco returned to Potter's office. He exchanged nods with Potter, and set about opening up the spot where he had determined the heating should go. It was on the wall between Potter's office and the hallway, just left of the door. Close enough to the hallway heating pipes that it wouldn't be too difficult to extend them, but out of the way of the other spellwork in the room. 

The charm to open up the drywall was one of Draco's favorites. He never got tired of watching the way the wall just melted away near his wand, leaving a rounded rectangular hole for working in. The next step was to set up the loop of pipes that would run the hot water around Potter's wall, and then connecting them to the rest of the heating system. The trickiest part was when he had to hold back the water in the hallway pipes with a spell while attaching the new pipes. At least he didn't have to turn the water to the whole building off. The heating might be based on a Muggle system, but Draco did not envy the Muggles who had to make similar repairs with no magic to help.

"How come the heating system uses pipes?" Potter asked. Draco jumped a little at the interruption, having forgotten that Potter was still there working at his desk. "I thought it would be done by magic."

"Well, it does use magic," Draco answered, eyes half on his work and half on Potter's expression of genuine curiosity. "These pipes I'm putting in wouldn't produce enough radiant heat to warm the whole room without the charms I'm about to cast to help them out. However, you're correct that most of the heat is produced without magic. You remember that magic converts to heat and other physical energy nonlinearly, right?"

Potter nodded like someone who would not pass his NEWTS if he were forced to retake them tomorrow. Draco sighed.

"It's exponential, so if I want to raise the temperature of something by a small amount, it takes a little bit of magic, but the bigger the change I want to make, the more and more magic it takes for each degree of temperature change."

Potter nodded again, but Draco thought this time he might actually be following.

"So in a smaller building, you might be able to heat it entirely by magic, but in a building as large as the Ministry, there's a  _ lot _ of air to heat, which would require enormous quantities of magic. It's much easier for us to make some hot water the Muggle way, and then use magic to help it out just a little. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, it does, actually," Potter said. "Thanks."

Draco put the finishing touches on his spellwork and closed up the wall. "Alright, it should start to warm up now."

"I can feel it already," said Potter, taking off his scarf and grinning at Draco. "My fingers aren't numb any more!”

Potter's windows were still black, a sign that the weather charms weren't working. The false weather that let everyone at the Ministry forget they were underground was some of the most difficult spellwork found in a regular office, and Draco wasn't particularly eager to get started on it right away, given all the other things at his desk he was supposed to be fixing.

Draco gestured at the windows and asked, "Can you deal with the black windows another day? I've got some other work I really should finish today. I can come back and fix your weather tomorrow afternoon."

"Oh, sure," Potter said brightly. "It's much more habitable in here now that you've fixed the lights and the heat, it's no problem at all."

"Well, er, great then," Draco said, suddenly uncomfortable with all this time spent talking  _ politely _ (of all things) with Harry bloody Potter (of all people). "I'll be back to do your weather tomorrow."

He beat a hasty retreat from Potter's office, ignoring the friendly wave Potter sent him as he left. What an utterly bizarre afternoon. An afternoon spent fixing things for Harry Potter, who had chatted and smiled and asked questions about pipes, for heaven's sake. It was beyond comprehension, and Draco couldn't throw himself into another project fast enough.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! It was very exciting for me yesterday to see the number of hits go up, and to see that some of them were turning into kudos(es?) and subscriptions and bookmarks. Just so you know, Chapter 3 and Chapter 5 are each half written, and Chapter 4 exists as a very detailed internal monologue. I'm hoping I'll be able to keep posting a chapter a day.

Draco had done such a good job avoiding thinking about Potter that he was actually genuinely shocked to see him walk into the Department of Magical Maintenance at ten the next morning. Matheson was at the front desk, and Draco was at his favorite workbench in the back, tinkering with one of the new handwashing and drying units (they were nearly as fast as a _Scourgify_ , and much gentler on the skin, but they did seem to break down a lot – in the four months since they'd been installed in all the bathrooms, Draco had had to fix five of them). Potter ignored Matheson's attempts at eye contact and made a beeline for Draco.

"I wasn't expecting to see you until this afternoon, Potter," Draco said, barely glancing up from his tools.

"Sorry to bother you," Potter replied, "but my lights and heat have gone out again."

"Huh," said Draco, surprised. "Have they really?" There must be some underlying cause, some other problem to fix beyond the obvious ones. This was turning out to be rather fun. Draco had a couple ideas of what might be wrong with Potter's office, but he really should fix the handwashing unit first.

"Potter, is there any chance you could do something else for an hour or so, and give me time to finish this before I tackle your office again? It's just that this is from the only gender neutral bathroom on Level 3, and Mil Bulstrode gets awful eczema between their fingers when they have to use _Scourgify_."

"Oh yeah, this is one of those new handwash thingies, isn't it?" Potter said, taking a closer look at all the pieces strewn across Draco's desk. "I quite like those things. Sure, I can take an early lunch or something."

"Or you could get Matheson to do it instead," Draco said, nodding towards his coworker.

Potter didn't seem to hear that suggestion, saying, "So I should come back in about an hour?"

"No need, I can meet you up at your office. But it would help if you could submit another maintenance request - I've got a theory about what's going on with your office, and I think if I can see why your request gets marked as low priority, that will clear things up. Send me an interdepartmental memo first, though, before you send the maintenance request, so I know to go watch the triage spell. And remember to send the request from inside your office! That's how the spell knows what room the work needs to be done in."

"Okay," said Potter, "just so I've got the details straight: I wait about an hour, go back to my office, send you a heads up memo, and then submit another request? And then you'll come meet me at my office?"

Draco could have laughed and made fun of Potter for confusing a relatively minor maintenance issue with an undercover Auror mission, but if he was honest, it was actually a nice change to have another Ministry employee treating his job with respect.

"Exactly," he said instead. "I'll see you later."

 

For once in his life, Draco had perfectly estimated how long it would take to finish a job, because Potter's memo bumped him in the shoulder just as he got back from installing the repaired handwashing unit on Level 3. _I'll count to 60 and then send the maintenance request_ , the memo read, and sure enough, the maintenance request floated into the room a minute later.

Draco met the maintenance request at the automated triage box, and watched the output as the spell worked. It analyzed the sender (" _Harry J Potter, Auror"_ ), the type of work required ( _"Key environmental spells"_ ), and the location ( _"Storage 2C, Auror Division"_ ) before assigning a status ( _"Lowest Priority"_ , as expected). The request was copied, with one copy sent to a red folder that no one from Magical Maintenance ever opened, and another sent floating back upstairs to Potter. Not for the first time, Draco wished they would have an especially slow week, or be given the funding for a fifth employee, so that they could get around to doing something about the low priority jobs. Anyway, watching the triage spell had confirmed his theory about Potter's office, so he packed up his toolbox and headed upstairs.

He found Potter sitting cross-legged on the floor outside of his office, with stacks of paperwork balanced on his knees. Potter scrambled to his feet as Draco turned the corner.

"It really is uncomfortably cold in there," Potter said, as though he needed an excuse for not wanting to sit in the dark. "Did sending another maintenance request help? Do you know why things keep breaking?"

"Yes, I'm pretty sure I know what's going on now," Draco said. "You said your office was converted from a storage room?"

"Yeah, one of those file cabinet type ones," Potter said, "Where you pull the drawers out into the hallway and they're like, impossibly long."

"I thought so! The problem is that whoever did the conversion expanded the room and set it up like an office, but they messed up the first step, which is telling the building that it's an office now," Draco explained, "Basically, the building thinks that this is just an unnecessarily large filing cabinet, and filing cabinets don't need light, or heat, or windows with magical weather, because you don't actually go inside them. So those things keep disappearing because the building thinks they're a waste of magic, and when you submit the maintenance requests, they get marked as low priority because the triage spell also thinks they're unnecessary."

Potter nodded. "Okay, that makes a lot of sense. How do we fix it?"

Draco sighed. "Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to start over from scratch. Take everything out of there, let the room revert to storage like it wants to, and then do the conversion properly this time. It'll probably take the rest of the day, there's no need for you to hang around while I'm working. You can go off and do Auror things."

"At least let me help you move everything out of the room," Potter said. "It's mostly my own stuff in there, anyway."

So Draco and Potter got to work moving Potter's things out of his office and into the corridor. The office being tucked away around a corner turned out to be pretty convenient, because it meant they could just levitate everything out and pile it up without worrying about blocking anybody's way. Draco left the desk for last, and made sure he and Potter were both fully out of the room before levitating it. Sure enough, as soon as the desk passed the threshold, there was a loud sucking sound and the office snapped back in on itself, leaving them standing in front of a large filing cabinet embedded in the wall.

Draco took a minute to organize his tools and mentally rehearse the procedure for converting the room. It would be his first time doing a room conversion on his own, but the last time he'd done this, he'd been working with Gil Hanbury, who had been more harmful than helpful. In fact, Hanbury had been fired for incompetence a month back, and based on the timing, Draco strongly suspected he was the one who had bungled Potter's office conversion in the first place.

The first step, actually converting the purpose of the room from storage to office, was a simple modification of the wards, but Draco double- and triple-checked that he had done it correctly. Then he vanished the filing cabinet drawers, leaving a small alcove. He set up a portable lamp on the floor, and began expanding the space until it was roughly the size it had been before.

"How big do you want it?" he asked Potter, who had stuck around and was watching with interest. "I can give you another couple feet on this end if you'd like to put a couch in here."

"No thanks," Potter said, "I don't need any more excuses for staying late than I already have. This is good as is."

“Okay,” said Draco, and set the room to stay at its expanded size. Next, he had to make sure that the network of spells that ran throughout the Ministry had correctly extended along with the room. There were about a dozen different spells to check, with functions ranging from basic security to keeping the floors clean to making sure that interdepartmental memos could find people, and each came with its own set of checklists and forms that Draco had to fill out. After that, there was a whole second set of security spells and wards specific to the Auror Division, which had to be layered over the previous spells carefully, such that none of them interfered with the others.

Potter was still lingering in the doorway watching Draco work. Eventually, he cleared his throat and asked, “So how did you end up working for the Department of Magical Maintenance?”

Draco really did not want to tell Potter that story. He’d been enjoying pretending that Potter was a stranger who didn’t know about his past, and talking about that period of his life would mean acknowledging their complicated history. But from a certain perspective, Potter almost had a right to know how Draco had got this job, since it was partially his doing. Maybe if he just kept his eyes on his work and didn't look at Potter while he talked…

"Well… so you know I had a year of probation and restrictions on my wand after… after everything," Draco said. That was the part that had been Potter's doing. Without his testimony that Draco had been acting under duress, Draco would likely have faced permanent travel and magic restrictions, like his mother, or even Azkaban, like his father. There was a hot ball of guilt in Draco's stomach, reminding him that he had never thanked Potter for his help. Somehow he managed to keep his wand moving over his work, and to croak out, "Thank you for that, by the way. It could have been a lot worse."

Potter made a small sound of acknowledgement.

After a moment, Draco continued, "There aren't a lot of employers who will take someone with restrictions on their wand, but it turns out one of the few who will is the Ministry. And someone suggested Magical Maintenance to my probation officer, who suggested it to me. I've never been sure whether it was someone who just wanted to piss of my father, or someone who knew I was good at Charms and thought I might enjoy it – Flitwick and Vector both testified for me, after you. So I started here when I was on probation. I was mostly stuck monitoring cleaning spells then, but still, I liked it enough that when my probation was up, I got my NEWTs and applied for a full time position."

"And you're happy with the job?" Potter asked. Draco turned away from his spellwork to look at him. Potter's green eyes were steady, and he seemed genuinely curious.

"Yes, I am," said Draco, trying to match Potter's earnestness even though it didn't come naturally. "I like fixing things, I like working with my hands, and I like that every day there's something new. The Ministry's the most magical building in Britain, aside from maybe Hogwarts, so it's just really cool to see how it all works. Also, I'm very good at what I do."

Potter laughed at that. "Yeah, you do seem like you're good at it."

"I am! Your office is being fixed by the Department of Magical Maintenance's Employee of the Month for 15 months running!"

"Good, good, I'm glad," said Potter. He took a deep breath and started getting serious again. "I'm really glad you've found something to do that's useful and that makes you happy and that helps people… it's what I was hoping for, you know? It's why I did it, at the trial."

Draco had no idea what the fuck he was supposed to say to _that,_ he hadn't been prepared for Potter and himself to have a fucking _moment_ today, so he just kind of nodded and made a terribly embarrassing sound that was not dissimilar to a dying duck.

"Er, well," said Potter, also clearly uncomfortable now, "I think I'd better go do some, um, Auror things now. Thank you for, like, redoing my whole office."

"It's my job, Potter," Draco replied, giving a little half-wave as Potter left the room.

_Fuck,_ Draco thought. What a strange day. Heart to hearts with _Harry sodding Potter._ At least they hadn't gone any further back in their history than Draco's trial. He didn't think he could have handled talking about the fire, or the bathroom, or that time in the Manor, or even that time on the train. It was all too much. Even if Potter had continued to be unrecognizably calm and understanding, it would have been too much.

Draco sighed and rubbed his face. He needed to focus. He had a job to do, and when he was done, Potter's office was going to be fucking _perfect._


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that Draco has fixed Harry's office, it's time for him to fix some other things!
> 
> Again, thank you so much to everyone who has interacted with this fic so far! It's wild to me that I'm getting any kind of feedback at all - I should have tried writing years ago, this is way better than just telling a story to myself.

Draco had thought that fixing Potter’s office and having weirdly friendly conversations with him would be the most eventful part of his week, but on Friday, somebody knocked over a case of two dozen malfunctioning bludgers which were in the process of being transported to the Department of Magical Games and Sports. The bludgers smashed through a wall in Level Three, taking out several structurally important spells and charms, which resulted in the disappearance of the entire Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, including everyone inside.

It was nearly an hour before anyone thought to call Magical Maintenance, during which time the Aurors had taken charge of the scene and proceeded to cock things up even further. By the time Draco made it to the small lobby outside the lifts where the accident had taken place, they had dismantled several other wards and charms, risking the stability of the entire Ministry. As if that wasn’t bad enough, all of this had to happen on a day when the only other maintenance staff at work was Natalie McDonald, who had only been on the job for three weeks. Draco sent Natalie off to locate Matheson and their boss, Ethelwyn Danvers, on the hunch that the Aurors would be more inclined to listen to a more senior member of the Maintenance staff. In the meantime, it was up to him to try to wrest control from Head Auror Robards and reattach the missing department.

Draco cast a quick Sonorus and shouted, "STOP!" Several of the Aurors jumped and turned towards him. Potter was among them, but Draco addressed himself to Robards. "DO NOT CAST ANOTHER SPELL, UNLESS YOU WANT THE REST OF THE BUILDING TO DISAPPEAR AS WELL!" This got the rest of the Aurors to stop casting charms at the hole in the wall and focus on Draco instead. Unfortunately, it also had the effect of sounding rather like a threat, and Draco soon found himself engaged in a shouting match with the Head Auror.

It took about half an hour to convince Robards that Draco was a maintenance worker and not a terrorist who had staged the bludger accident, and that was _with_ the assistance of Potter and Auror Proudfoot, Draco's old probation officer. It took another twenty minutes to explain the source of the problem, namely, that the floorplan of the Ministry as it was _experienced_ from the inside was quite different from the floorplan of the Ministry as it actually _existed_ geographically.

"For the hundredth time," Draco said, "the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes hasn't _gone anywhere_. It's right where it always is, about half a kilometer over that way, on the other side of a Muggle Tube station. The only thing that's happened is the magical bridge from here to there is broken."

"So you're saying that everyone who was in there is safe?" asked an Auror who hadn't bothered to introduce herself.

" _Yes,_ " said Draco, "everyone is _perfectly safe_ , but they're probably wondering what's going on and why their Floos have stopped working, so the sooner you let me– "

"But if you're saying it's just a broken magical hallway or whatever, why would that affect the Floo?" demanded Robards.

"Merlin, give me patience," Draco sighed, restraining himself from rolling his eyes. "The bludgers didn't break the Floo access, that was _you lot_ , messing about with the charms in the walls instead of calling Magical Maintenance to come handle what  _should have been a straightforward maintenance issue!"_

When Natalie returned with Ethelwyn, who had been getting her hair done at a salon in Glasgow (of all places), it was more than two hours since the initial accident, and Draco had only just convinced the Aurors to back off and let him get started on fixing the hallway. Ethelwyn set to placating Robards, and Natalie came to help Draco. By the time they had reconnected the department and fixed the damage to the wards and the wall, Ethelwyn had managed to de-ruffle Robards' feathers enough that he grudgingly shook Draco's hand and gritted out an apology for delaying things.

"Thank you for the apology, Head Auror," said Draco, using all of his Malfoy manners but noticeably not apologizing in return. "It is _so_ important that the different Departments in the Ministry work together, each recognizing the others' expertise. I look forward to working together with you in the future."

Draco made the mistake of catching Potter's eye over Robards' shoulder, and nearly burst out laughing at how much Potter was enjoying Draco's ironic politeness. Potter had to wipe the glee of his face in a hurry, though, as Robards turned abruptly and swept off into the lifts, gesturing at the remaining Aurors to follow him.

"Good work today, Draco," Ethelwyn said, "Guess I'll have to give you Employee of the Month again."

 

After the incident with the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, it seemed like Draco saw Potter everywhere. They had worked in the same building for years without running into each other, but now Draco couldn't leave his desk without having another little polite conversation with him. Potter was in the Atrium when Draco arrived at work. He was in the cafeteria when Draco went to lunch. He was in the Leaky Cauldron when Draco went to Diagon Alley for some errands. He was even chatting with Luna Lovegood in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures when Draco was called down to fix an issue with their animal facilities.

"Oh, Draco, I was hoping it'd be you!" Lovegood cried. "Harry says you're Employee of the Month at Magical Maintenance, and the poor crups and kneazles deserve the best of everything while they're waiting for their forever homes!"

"Yes," said Draco, "I'm sure they do."

"I've been hoping to run into you, Malfoy," said Potter. "I wanted to ask if you were interested in coming to pub trivia at the Leaky tonight. Neville's away on a study abroad term for his Herbology program, so we're short a team member."

"Who's 'we'?" Draco asked.

"Not me," said Lovegood, "I don’t believe in trivia night. Knowledge is for everyone, it shouldn't be a competition."

Potter smiled at her fondly. "I know, Luna, but everyone does get to hear the right answers in the end." Turning to Draco, he continued, "Besides Neville, the usual team is me, Hermione, Dean Thomas, Lavender Brown, and the Patil twins."

"No Weasley?" Draco asked, surprised.

"Oh, Ron stays home with the baby. Thursday Trivia is Hermione's solo night out."

"And do you usually do well? I wouldn't want to join a losing team."

Potter laughed. "Don't worry! We usually get first or second. We have a pretty broad range of knowledge - Hermione and Padma are Healers, Parvati is studying magical law, Dean is good at art and history, and Lavender is absolutely brilliant at the pop culture rounds."

"Well, in that case, I'll give it a try," Draco said. "Tonight at the Leaky Cauldron?"

"Yep! 7pm. We can meet in the atrium at 6:50 and Floo over together, if you like?"

"Sure," said Draco.

Lovegood clapped her hands. "Wonderful! You're going to have _so_ much fun! Remember to come back and tell me if you learn anything interesting."

 

When it came time for Draco to meet Potter, he was starting to regret agreeing to go. He still didn't really understand why or how the two of them were getting along now, which made the whole thing feel outside of his control. What if having other people there ruined it, and all of a sudden they were back to trading insults and punches? Draco didn't want to get banned from the Leaky Cauldron.

Potter didn't seem to share Draco's worries, because he was grinning from ear to ear when he spotted Draco waiting by the Floo. "Hi!" he said. "Are you ready? Let's go!"

When Draco stepped out of the Floo on the other side, he spotted Potter's friends right away. They were squeezed around a table in the back corner of the pub, and they already had a pitcher of beer.

"Harry!" Granger called, as Potter tumbled out of the Floo behind Draco. "We're over here!"

Laughing, Potter lead the way over to his friends. "Hi guys! I convinced Draco to come be our Neville replacement. Draco, you remember everyone, right?"

_Draco? Oh bloody hell, was this a given names thing?_ Draco had not been expecting that. He was pretty sure he'd never said "Hermione" out loud before, what if he didn't actually know how to say it? That would be beyond embarrassing. Best to see how far he could get without referring to anyone directly.

"Thank you for having me," Draco said, awkwardly trying to nod at the whole crowd at once. He definitely wasn't the only one feeling uncomfortable. No one was talking, and several people were shooting Potter looks that suggested that he hadn't warned any of them he was inviting Draco. Draco stared at his hands folded in front of him on the scuffed up wooden table. _Coming here was not a very good idea,_ he thought.

Just as Draco was thinking he should get up and leave, an enthusiastic young witch with very long hair started passing out parchments and explaining the rules. Draco sighed and decided to stay for the first round.

"The first round is a photo round," the host was saying. "I'll conjure a photo up on this wall for each question, so make sure you can see! The theme for this round is famous wizarding streets of Europe. For each question, I want you to tell me both the city and the country where the photo was taken! Is that clear?"

The first couple questions were easy: Paris, Rome, Berlin. The fourth picture showed a row of light colored 19th century buildings along a sunny stone street, with trees waving in front of them. Someone at the table next to them groaned in frustration.

"Is that Barcelona?" Draco whispered.

"It could be Italy again?" Dean suggested.

"Yeah, it looks fairly southern…" Hermione mused.

"I really think that's Barcelona," Draco said.

Parvati shrugged and passed him the parchment and quill. "Might as well write it down!"

The parchment stayed with Draco for the rest of the round, since it seemed he was the most well-traveled. He was pretty sure he had gotten most of them right, with a little input from Hermione and Dean, although he was now wondering if he had perhaps gotten Bucharest and Budapest confused on the last question.

There was a break before the second round of questions to give everyone a chance to chat and fill up on drinks. Answering the questions together did seem to have broken the ice a little. When Potter complimented Draco on being able to recognize so many cities, the rest of the team nodded in agreement, and Lavender made a point of including Draco when asking what she should get for their second pitcher of beer.

While Lavender was getting the drinks, Hermione turned to Draco and asked, "So you're working at the Ministry now?"

"Yes," replied Draco. "For the Department of Magical Maintenance. It's not very exciting, but I enjoy it."

"What are you talking about, Draco, it's plenty exciting!" said Harry. "Tell them about last week, when you got to yell at Robards! Draco as good as called Robards an idiot to his face, it was absolutely brilliant."

So Draco told the whole story about the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes becoming disconnected from the rest of the Ministry. It seemed like Potter's boss was not particularly well-liked among Potter's friends, so as Draco warmed up to his story, he really played up Robards' bluster and pigheadedness. By the time the second round of questions started, the whole table was laughing, and Dean was slapping Draco on the back.

The second round was a music round. The host played short clips of wizarding songs from the 80s, and they had to name the musical artist. As promised, Lavender was an absolute genius at recognizing songs from just a couple seconds of music, but Draco did help her remember the name of The Screaming Kneazles so at least he contributed something. The final round was about human anatomy, which gave Hermione and Padma a chance to shine. The others took the chance to relax and eye the competition.

"See that table over there?" Potter asked, gesturing to a group of witches about Draco's parents' age. "Those are our main rivals."

"They're all librarians," Parvati said, "which I think really shouldn't be allowed."

"They've beaten us every week since Neville left," Dean added, "which is why Harry was so keen to get a seventh player."

"Is that Madam Pince with them?" Draco asked, as one of the other librarians shifted in her seat.

"Oh yes," said Potter. "She hates it when students beat her. I think the look on her face face when we win is the main reason I keep doing this."

In the end, they did beat the librarians, but only by two questions. Hermione forced them all into a group hug to celebrate their victory, and everyone encouraged Draco to return the next week to enjoy the free drinks that were their prize.

Draco and Potter were the last to leave.

"Thank you for coming, Draco," Potter said. "It was fun, right? You had fun?"

"Yeah, I did," Draco replied, surprised to realize that it was true. "I had a great time."


	4. Chapter 4

After that, Draco and Potter were properly friends. Draco went back to trivia the next week, and the next. When Potter was in between cases or otherwise unoccupied at work, he would come watch Draco work on whatever he was repairing. They got drinks after work, and coffee on weekends. Draco was even invited over to Potter's house for a dinner party.

Now that Draco knew what it was like to be friends with Potter, a lot of things from Hogwarts made more sense. He understood why everyone had seemed so obsessed with Potter, and why his close friends had been so loyal. Potter was somehow both the most easygoing and the most intense person Draco knew. He threw himself into everything he did with a ferocity that should have been intimidating, but he was so warm and open in his manner that it was endearing instead. Sometimes Draco thought about his eleven-year-old self, who had seen Potter at Madam Malkin's and wanted to be friends with him, and imagined trying to explain to him what being friends with Potter was actually like. He usually decided that little Draco wouldn't really be able to understand – the kind of friendship that Potter did, the easy friendliness and honesty he offered, that wasn't something Draco had known how to do back then.

The only thing that made Draco uneasy about his developing friendship with Potter was the worry that even though he had grown enough to appreciate Potter's friendship, he might not have grown enough to really deserve it or be able to maintain it. He knew why he wanted to be friends with Potter, but he didn't really understand why Potter had decided to be friends with _him_ , not when he had so many friends already. Not knowing made him feel a little insecure, worried that Potter might one day change his mind and withdraw his friendship as swiftly as he had offered it.

And that was why Draco hadn't mentioned anything about Potter to Pansy, his only other real friend. Since Draco had decided not to tell Pansy about Potter, it meant that he had nothing to tell her when she asked questions about his social life.

"Really, Draco? You're telling me you did nothing all weekend other than our Floo call Saturday morning?" Pansy asked, incredulously. "Are you _trying_ to die alone?"

They had planned to meet up for lunch, but then Draco had been tasked with fixing the giant clock from the Floo Network Authority lobby. It was supposed to show both the local time at all the equivalent agencies around the world as well as the general mood of the employees in those offices, but it was currently malfunctioning. For example, the clock's display claimed that it was 05:43 in Spain, and that the Spanish Floo officials were "doing trust falls underwater". The head of the Floo Authority had begged Draco to fix the clock as soon as possible, so he was working through his lunch hour, while Pansy sat on the edge of his workbench eating takeout and criticizing his social life.

"Draco, we are _in the prime of our lives_ right now, do you realize that? You should be going out, having fun, meeting people! Not spending Saturday nights home alone!" Pansy cried, nearly flinging food into the clockwork.

Draco shrugged. "I'm happy with my life, Pans, I don't need anything else."

"You spend too much time tinkering with things and not enough time meeting cute boys. It _isn't healthy,_ " she insisted. "At least let me set you up on a date. There's this guy at my work, Owen Cauldwell. He was a Hufflepuff in school, but we've all changed since then."

"Not interested."

"Oh, come on, Draco! He's absolutely adorable and he has a thing for blondes."

"No thanks."

"But he's only _just_ come out and he's so _anxious_ about it and I promised him I'd find him a date! It doesn't have to go anywhere, just chat with him at a restaurant for an hour or so as a favor to me, so that I don't have to feel guilty about you dying alone. _Please!_ " Pansy begged.

"I'll think about it," Draco said.

"Wonderful, that's great, because I've already told him you're free on Friday night and made a reservation for you at The Lightning Bug," Pansy said with great self-satisfaction.

Draco really didn't want to go – he had no interest in this Owen bloke, and he was supposed to be having dinner with Potter on Friday – but Pansy could be incredibly annoying when she had decided he should do something, and he was sure Potter would be willing to reschedule.

"Fine," Draco sighed, "but I'll only go if you promise not to harass me about my social life for a full six months afterwards."

"Done," said Pansy, smirking. "Honestly, though, Draco, it won't be that bad. Owen's perfectly unobjectionable! If you just give him a chance, I'm sure you'll like him."

 

Pansy was wrong. Owen Cauldwell was not "perfectly unobjectionable" at all – after talking to him for only five minutes, Draco had at least three objections. First, he was only just out of Hogwarts, and Draco was not interested in dating nineteen-year-olds who could barely Apparate. Second, he showed too many teeth when he smiled. Draco was sure that sort of thing was fine for _some_ people, but he himself preferred not to look at molars. Third, the boy was a walking Hufflepuff stereotype. Not only was he dressed in a yellow and black striped jumper like a giant bumble bee, but in the short time they had been at the restaurant, he had already apologized four times to Draco and three times to their waiter.

Also, he talked too much (objection four), and everything he had to say was extremely boring (objection five).

"Oh wow, I can't believe they have both pasta and steak here!" Owen was saying. "When Pansy said the restaurant was called The Lightning Bug, I wasn't sure what kind of food it would be. Usually you can tell because the name of the restaurant is in another language, you know, but this one is an American Muggle thing apparently, so I thought it might be American food. Have you ever been to America?"

"No," said Draco, only half listening. "Have you?"

"Me neither. I've never been anywhere at all really, except to Scotland for Hogwarts, but that hardly counts because everyone goes to Hogwarts. I would like to travel someday, though, everyone says that traveling is so enriching. Ernie was showing everyone at the office photos from his vacation last week. He went to the Maldives. Have you ever seen a photo of the Maldives?"

"No," said Draco. He looked around the restaurant, hoping to see something more interesting than Owen. It was a relatively upscale place, and it seemed like most of the witches and wizards here were on dates. Draco looked at each couple in turn, trying to decide whether any of them were having a worse time than he was.

"Oh, you should try to find a photo, I wish I had one to show you. You would love it, the water is so blue, it's just unbelievable really. I've never seen water that blue in my life," Owen continued. "Not that I've seen that many bodies of water to compare it with! I did visit Lake Windermere once. That was very pretty too. There's always a lot of Muggle tourists in the Lake District, but I think it's well worth it. The prettiest part of England, my gran always says!"

"I've been to Windermere," Draco tried to interject, but Owen just kept going.

"Then you know that it's true. Absolutely gorgeous, very picturesque lake. Not nearly as blue as the water in the Maldives, though, I'll tell you that!"

By the time their food arrived, Draco was seriously considering faking a sudden illness to get out of the date early. He couldn't believe he'd cancelled dinner with Potter to be yammered at for an hour about the color of the water in the Maldives. He was definitely going to give Pansy an earful the next time they talked. Owen, on the other hand, seemed to think the date was going well, judging by the overwhelming amount of smiles and eyelash flutters he sent Draco's way.

"Oh my _god,_ this is so good!" Owen moaned, taking a bite of his pasta. "Draco, you have got to try this!"

"No thanks," said Draco. "I'm perfectly content with my own meal."

"No, seriously, this is amazing. You'll love it, let me just give you a little bite!" Owen said, gathering some noodles with his fork.

"Really, please don't, I don't even really like seafood," Draco said, waving him off.

Owen was undeterred. "Come on, just a little bite! It's seriously amazing!" He started moving his fork towards Draco's mouth, giggling like he thought he was being cute.

Draco was absolutely mortified. He was not one for public displays of affection, especially not on a first date with someone he didn't even like. Now Owen was making a big production of trying to feed him like he was a picky toddler, and surely other people were noticing. Draco leaned as far back in his chair as he could, worried that if he opened his mouth to say "No" again, Owen would shove his fork in. He saw someone approaching in his peripheral vision – maybe a waiter, coming to tell them to knock it off?

"WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK, DRACO!" bellowed a familiar voice. Owen froze with his fork still outstretched, inches from Draco's face. Draco could hardly bear to look up at the man standing next to their table. It wasn't a waiter, it was Potter, and he was absolutely livid. Draco was confused and surprised in equal measure. What was Potter doing here? 

"I can't believe you! What the fuck!" Potter hissed, quieter. He loomed over the table, and Draco could almost see waves of magic rolling off him. It had been a long time since Draco had seen Potter this upset. He swallowed hard, remembering that Potter wasn't just Draco's slightly daft friend who memorized sports trivia to beat their school librarian at pub trivia – he was also the man who had killed Voldemort. "I _cannot believe_ you cancelled on me so that you could go on a date with some other bloke!"

_Wait, what? Cancelled… date with another bloke?_ Draco suddenly felt like nothing was real. Maybe this was a dream and he would wake up any minute now. His head was spinning, Potter's words were echoing in his ears, and he couldn't do anything other than stare with his mouth hanging wide open.

Something about Draco's blank stare seemed to deflate Potter's anger a little. His face became less irate and more… crushed. He looked away from Draco's gaze, and Draco thought maybe he saw him blinking back tears. Before Draco could unfreeze his body and figure out how to react, Potter spun away and stormed out of the restaurant.

Well, if anybody hadn't been staring at Draco before, they were certainly staring now. _Fuck. What the fuck._ Potter had been asking him on a date _._ Draco had _cancelled that date,_ and hurt Potter's feelings, and most likely destroyed their friendship.  _How had he not realized Potter had been trying to ask him on a date?_ Draco felt like the biggest idiot in the world.

"Was that… was that Harry Potter?" _Shit, Owen was still here._ "Draco, do you know Harry Potter? Wow, that's crazy that you know Harry Potter!"

Draco's nerves could not handle a single second more of interacting with Owen Cauldwell. He stood up, dropped a handful of Galleons on the table, and Apparated directly out of the restaurant, etiquette be damned.


	5. Chapter 5

"Oh Pans, I've fucked everything up," Draco moaned, throwing himself facedown on the fluffy bright pink rug that dominated the living room of Pansy's flat. "I've made a complete mess, and I need you to put me out of my misery."

"Is this about Owen?" Pansy asked. "Because I really didn't expect that date to be particularly high stakes."

Draco lifted his head from the rug and stared at her, pretending his eyes weren't watering. "Did _you_ know that Potter is gay?"

"He's not, actually, he's bisexual," Pansy said. "Don't you remember all that nasty biphobic rot Rita Skeeter wrote after he came out?"

Draco did not remember _all that nasty biphobic rot,_  not at all, but then again, he didn't scour the papers for news about Potter the way Pansy did. 

Pansy had taken a liking to Potter ever since he had spoken at her trial after the war. " _It's true Parkinson and I were never friends_ ," Potter had said, " _but since when is it illegal to shout something dumb when you think you're about to die? It was hardly a credible death threat. Frankly, I think it's completely ridiculous that a room full of adults is debating throwing a teenager into prison because she panicked when Voldemort was attacking her school, as though that will make you feel any better about not doing anything useful during the war yourselves_." It was nearly word for word what Pansy would have said for herself, had she not been terrified of being charged with contempt of court, and she had been an unrepentant Potter fan, at least in private, ever since.

Now, Pansy was sitting on the edge of her sofa looking like she rather hoped Draco would spout some biphobic rot himself so that she could have the pleasure of defending Potter.

Draco groaned and rolled onto his back, rubbing his hands into his eyes. "He asked me on a _date,_ Pansy, but I thought we were just friends, so I cancelled it and then he _saw me_ with bloody fucking Owen goddamn _Cauldwell_ trying to shove food down my throat."

"Oh," said Pansy. "Oh dear."

" _Oh dear_ indeed," said Draco, abandoning the idea of pretending not to cry. "He was so angry! Merlin, I didn't – I didn't _know_ , I had no _idea_ , I never thought – !"

Pansy slipped to the floor and gently started stroking Draco's hair. "Well," she said, "let's think about it a little now, together. Okay?"

Draco nodded, wiping at his eyes.

"So you and Potter are friends? For how long?"

Draco nodded. "I had to fix some things for him at work a couple weeks back, and we've been hanging out... I didn't tell you because I was afraid it wouldn't last."

"And he likes you?"

"Apparently! I hadn't noticed, but the way he was when he saw me tonight, he – " Draco felt like he was about to start sobbing again.

"Shh, it's okay," Pansy said. "So he likes you. Do you like him?"

"I don't _know_! I never– I didn't think that was an _option_ , so I didn't let myself look!" It was true. Draco had been trying very hard to avoid looking at Potter that way.

"But you like him as a friend?"

"Yeah, yeah I do. He's kind, and he laughs at my jokes, and he asks good questions about my work and actually listens to the answers…" Draco said, sitting up so that he would have more room to gesture wildly. 

"Okay, so you like him as a person. Do you think, if you had let yourself look, that you would be interested? Take a minute and just think about it," Pansy said, gently.

Draco needed considerably less than a minute to think about it. When he pictured Potter, with his stupidly curly hair and his strong arms and broad shoulders and that irritatingly charming twinkle in his eye when they were sharing a joke and his dumb soft lips… Draco knew. 

"Fuck," he said, "Merlin's tits." He wanted to slam his head into a wall like a House Elf for being so blind. "I think… I think that probably I would have really liked to have gone on that date. I think that maybe I really fucking like him, Pans. What kind of idiot throws away a chance like that?"

He threw himself back down on the rug in despair.

"You're not an idiot, Draco," Pansy frowned, "You know I don't like to hear you talk about yourself like that. Anyway, if you like him and he likes you, then all you have to do is apologize."

_"All I have to do is apologize?_ " Draco groaned. "You say that like it's easy."

"You apologized to Luna Lovegood and Ollivander," Pansy pointed out, "After that, any other conversation should be easy. I’m pretty confident you can manage to tell Potter you're sorry you didn't notice he was flirting with you without dying."

 

An hour later, standing on Potter's doorstep mentally rehearsing the apology he and Pansy had prepared, Draco was pretty confident that she was wrong about him not dying from this conversation. In fact, he was probably going to die of nerves before he even talked to Potter, given how long it was taking him to respond to his doorbell. Whenever Potter did get around to opening the door, he would find a Draco-shaped puddle of goo and sweat, and – 

At that moment, the door finally creaked open, and there was Potter, glaring at him so furiously that Draco had to look at Potter's knees instead of his face before he could open his mouth.

"Hi, um, I know you're really mad at me, but I – there's something I have to tell you. Please. Can I please come in and talk?" Draco asked.

"Please?" he added, when Potter looked like he might slam the door in his face. Draco felt foolish repeating _please_ like it was the only word he knew, but it seemed to work because Potter relented, opening the door wider and stomping off towards the sitting room, leaving Draco to follow.

It was only the second time Draco had been in Potter's home, and if he hadn't had more important things to do, he would have liked to look around more at all the changes Potter had made to this house that used to belong to Draco's great aunt. Circumstances being what they were, however, he hurried down the hallway and into the cosy sitting room, where Potter was sitting stiffly on the sofa.

Draco sat in the armchair opposite him, and took a moment to steel himself. _Potter liked him. He liked Potter. That meant that as long as he was just honest about things, there was good chance this would all work out._ Honest conversations about feelings were not Draco's forte, but sometimes it was the only way to get what you wanted.

Draco cleared his throat, and raised his eyes to meet Potter's. Potter's gaze was stony, and Draco reflexively looked away. He refocused on Potter's ear (hopefully they were right when they said that people couldn't tell), and tried again.

"Okay, so, I'll go into the details, but the big picture here is that I am _so very sorry,_ and I had _no idea_ you were asking me on a date, and I would very much like to try again tomorrow," Draco managed to say, still staring at Potter's ear. "I never would have cancelled or rescheduled or gone out with someone else if I had realized."

"How can you have not known? I thought I was being pretty obvious!"

"Well, in retrospect, all that leaning over my desk while I worked and walking me to Apparition Points and everything _did_ seem a little flirty, but I thought that was just you being friends," Draco said. "I don't exactly have a lot of experience with normal, healthy friendships, so I guess I just thought that was how Gryffindors did it. Besides, you never did anything _really_ obvious, like hold my hand or go in for a kiss."

"That was the plan for tonight," Potter said softly. Draco risked a glance at his face, and was relieved to see that Potter didn't look so angry and closed off any more. Instead, he was watching Draco thoughtfully. _I should probably call him Harry,_ Draco thought, _if things are going to go the way I want them to go. You can't date a man and call him by his last name._

 "I really, really wish I had known that was the plan. I never would have let Pansy talk me into going to dinner with her coworker," Draco said. "Believe me, that was one of the least pleasant dates I've ever been on, even before you showed up. How come you were there, anyway?"

"After you told me you couldn't come, I thought I might as well go on my own since I had the reservation. Obviously I had no idea you would be there," Harry said with a strangled chuckle.

"I really am sorry you had to see that," Draco said. "Are you still mad at me?"

"I don't think I'm mad at you any more," Harry said, slowly. "It's hard to be mad at you when you're looking at me like that."

Draco felt a sudden rush of embarrassment and had to look away.

"You _really_ didn't know that I liked you?" Harry asked, as though he absolutely had to be sure.

"No, I really, really didn't. It was hard enough to believe that you wanted to be friends with me, I never imagined that you'd be interested in anything more," Draco replied. This was a lot of honesty for one day, but it did seem to be working, Harry was looking positively warm and friendly now. "I mean, why would someone like _you_ be interested in someone like _me?_ "

Draco meant that as a rhetorical question, but Harry seemed to take it seriously, because he answered, "Well, at first I was interested because you surprised me - I never imagined Draco Malfoy would be working behind the scenes, making things run comfortably and smoothly for other people. And then I liked watching you work - you're so focused on it, and excited when you figure something out, I couldn't help admiring you for that." He paused for a moment, seeking out Draco's gaze.

"Also, and this is something we haven't really talked about, so I hope I don't say something hurtful, but it seemed to me like your parents hadn't really done a good job of teaching you _kindness_ , but it was like, you weren't letting that stop you, you know? Like you were just working really hard to figure out on your own how to be the person you wanted to be. And I guess I felt like I could relate to that," Harry said, falling silent.

"Harry?" Draco said, getting up from his chair and crossing over to the sofa, "Can I kiss you now?"

Harry nodded, so Draco leaned down over the sofa and kissed him. Their first kiss was a little awkward, but Draco adjusted his head a little bit, and the second kiss was pure sweetness, and so was the third and the fourth. Draco was so happy he felt like he would burst, but instead he contented himself with peppering little kisses all over Harry's face. 

After a couple minutes, Draco pulled back so that he could look at Harry as he asked, "Harry, would you like to go to dinner with me tomorrow? As a date? I promise I won't cancel this time."

"Yes," Harry said, laughing. "Yes, I think I would like that very much."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter! Thank you so much to everyone for reading! I had a lot of fun posting this, hopefully I will be back soon with my second fanfic.


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